Nathan and Jean, late Friday night

[x-cable.livejournal.com]

After the party, Nathan sits out watching the moon, and he and Jean have a talk about frustration, diplomacy, Jesuits, and starting a land war in Asia. Then they make a date to go out and get into trouble. Yes, really.


The party had been pretty enjoyable, as school functions went. Nathan had ducked out a bit early, however, wanting to do some reading before he crashed for the night. Once outside, however, he'd realized that the cowboy costume was actually pretty warm, which made sitting down on the back porch steps and watching the clouds stream across the night sky was feasible. The constantly shifting moonlight made for interesting patterns on the lake.

Jean's voice was not entirely without warning when it came - she'd not been being particularly quiet as she stepped out onto the porch. Still she was entirely without preamble when she spoke up and said, "It is officially damned cold out here."

"Nippy," Nathan said, then slipped back into the drawl he'd been affecting for most of the evening. "I seem to be plum out of chicory, little lady, or I'd offer you a cup."

Jean managed to suppress the snort at the accent, and smiled. "Ah, well, the thought's appreciated. And it's a good costume, I admit. I was rather lacking in imagination this year. Besides, going to these things dressed as a chaperone requires so much less effort. I just have to look respectable."

Nathan adjusted his hat. "You could wear a paper bag and all the teenaged boys would still think terribly dirty thoughts. Actually, they'd probably do more of that if you ever showed up wearing a paper bag."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure Scott wouldn't let me out of the suite in just a paper bag... Actually, he'd probably not let me out of the bedroom, but that's the kind of thing I'm not supposed to say where the kids can hear me." She flashed him a grin. "Luckily, they're all still inside."

Nathan gave a grunt that was half-laugh, half-something more wistful, his gaze moving back to the lake. "You shouldn't talk like that around someone whose wife hasn't been home in a couple of weeks. Could make a fella jealous," he said, dropping back into the drawl.

Tugging her coat closer around her, Jean stepped down to sit on the step next to him. "You, my friend, need a trip across the pond."

"Tell me something I don't know. But if I leave, Angelo and Juliette will conspire to take over the office, and when I get back, I'll be relegated to the role of coffee monkey." Nathan sighed, adjusting the collar of his long leather coat. "You watch. I'm sure they're plotting already."

"Well, you're the one posting about getting your own back at the obnoxious creeps who sometimes pass for foreign dignitaries... Some might say the plotting was in order." There wasn't any bite to her tone, and the look she shot him over her shoulder was more considering than cranky.

"Bureaucrats." Nathan, on the other hand, did sound cranky. "I'm not going to lose my shit at anyone who's actually got any power... well, okay, yelling at the guy in Indonesia was a mistake, but I learned from that." He tugged sharply at his collar, his expression discontented and testy as he stared out at the lake. "Paper-pushers who like to think they don't have a problem are another matter entirely. I know the Nigerian government was on the list of African countries that Eris worked with."

Jean arched an eyebrow at him. "The Nigerian goverment doesn't like to think that they don't have a problem, they know they have many problems and don't give a flying fuck. And being a bureaucrat doesn't mean they don't have the power to make things hard for you and Elpis."

Nathan's eyes narrowed as he looked around at her. "Fucking diplomacy," he finally muttered, looking away and back out at the lake. "Why did I ever think I was going to be good at this?"

"Because you're stubborn enough that, when you remember to hold on to that tendency to act first, think third, you somehow bull-head your way into being rather good at it?" Jean turned her attention to the lake as well, although there was a hint of a smile playing at the corner of her lips

"There are certain things that trigger my temper rather than my good sense, still." Unfortunately, he was neck-deep in one of them at the moment. "I wish I could say I'm working on it, but I don't think that I'm ever going to be sanguine about child soldiers."

Jean nodded, then crossed her arms over her knees and rested her chin on them. "Can't say I blame you about that, no. Or even disagree with the sentiment."

"Still. Worth doing." Nathan leaned back against the railing, tilting his head forward. "I'm just frustrated. We're not seeing much progress yet. Sure, contacts and planning is all well and good, but until we start getting kids into DDR programs, we're not really doing anything."

"Groundwork is progress, Nathan. No, it's not as flashy as the last steps, but if it's not solid then everything goes to pot on the last bit and you're screwed. Or, worse, they are."

"Just bothers me," he muttered almost inaudibly, and the look on his face was bordering on sadness. "Knowing they're out there and not being able to reach them yet."

"I know." Jean sat quietly a few moments, eyes distant, face closed. "It's one of those damned if you do decisions - act now, quickly, and do the little you can, or wait until your ready to do it really big, and cope with knowing about the ones who had to wait. Or who couldn't."

"Mm," was Nathan's response to that. When he went on, his voice was determinedly cheerful. "On the bright side, I've made friends with some Jesuits. From their Refugee Service? Interesting people, Jesuits."

Jean half laughed at that, burying her face in her arms for a second. "There's something very disturbing about the idea of you and Jesuits. I can't put my hands on it, but something about it is very, very wrong."

"They're actually very hard-core. I feel a certain kinship." The mirth in his voice sounded less forced. "Not to mention that there's something very devastating about their tactics. Maybe I should start telling pain-in-the-ass bureaucrats that I'll pray for them?"

"Oh God, terrifying thought. Let's not make the Jesuits any more militant, is all I ask."

Nathan surprised himself with a grin. To cover it, he reached out and poked her in the shoulder. "You and I should go out and do something fun one of these nights," he said. "Some sort of mild-to-moderate troublemaking... I'm feeling cooped up, and that husband of yours appears to be recuperating properly, so you don't need to hover quite so much..."

"Do, actually. It was in the vows. 'Will obsessively hover when beloved is injured.' He had to promise to let me." The fact that she could joke about it was a really good sign that things were much, much better than they had been.

"What did he extort in return, or should I ask?" Nathan tried not to pout. Why did no one want to go out and get into trouble with him? I shouldn't have let Dom go back to Tel Aviv...

"I'd not recommend it, no." She turned to him with a grin, but either something in his face or the edge of his mental sense on hers tipped her off and she frowned at him, then leaned over and bumped him with her shoulder. "Was being silly, you. Am all for some mild trouble making, getting out and having fun. We both need it, I think."

Nathan brightened. "I have tickets to a fundraiser that Moira probably won't be home for. You could come with me, and we could be terribly catty about everyone's fashion sense - oh, and you could stop me from being ambushed by evil history professors. Which is what happened the last time I went to one of these things..."

"Oh, that sounds promising. Or, hey, if any evil history professors show up, I could help you beat them." She paused a second, then put on her best 'being responsible face' and added, "Not that I'm looking for someone to beat, or have any excessive need to break things from stress. But, you know, if the opportunity presents itself, who am I to say no."

Nathan grinned. "We are so bad for each other, you know."

Jean grinned back. "I know. It's such fun. Scott's going to make faces when I tell him we have plans to go out. He always imagines we're going to, I don't know, either end up in Sicily charming free drinks out of unwary natives, or go start a minor land war in Asia."

"Hey, I always bring you home unbruised and usually mostly sober..." Nathan tilted his head. "Although the minor land war idea is worth keeping in mind. It was fun the first time I did it..."

Comments

[x-rahne.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should start telling pain-in-the-ass bureaucrats that I'll pray for them?"

And see how far across the room Rahne can spit.... ;)